John Avlon had a lot to say about Mitch McConnell's shot across the bow to blue states.
"In the last six weeks, more Americans have died of coronavirus than were killed in the Vietnam war. While 30 million people have lost their jobs. Talk about American carnage. The president's son-in-law thinks they all deserve a trophy," Avlon said.
"But that wasn't the worst idea in Washington recently. With states reeling from COVID deaths, decimated tax bases, skyrocketing unemployment, struggling to pay cops, firefighters, teachers, pensions and jobless claims, Mitch McConnell floated the idea of letting states go bankrupt."
"But McConnell presided over massive growth in the deficit and the debt before the pandemic hit, courtesy of the Trump tax cut to many businesses getting big bailouts. Now it's much worse with the federal debt projected to exceed 100% of GDP. Then there's this fact. States can't declare bankruptcy under federal law. It can only default. It's not like Trump and his businesses declaring bankruptcy after making bad bets in Atlantic City, which is probably why Governor Cuomo called it:
"And Speaker Nancy Pelosi said :
"McConnell's also pushing an old stereotype that happens to be completely wrong. Let's look at the facts. New York state puts nearly $22 billion more each year into the federal government to terms of taxes than it takes out. McConnell's Kentucky gets $45 billion more from the federal government than it gives. So no matter what McConnell says, could it be the red state are bigger freeloaders than the blue states when it comes to federal funds?
"While McConnell's been trying to win the worst idea in Washington, Donald Trump said 'hold my beer,' instead talking about tying state relief to amending so-called 'sanctuary city' provisions.
"Now, here's the thing. One of the reasons sanctuary city provisions exist is to help contain a public health crisis like the one we're in now. Follow the logic here. If undocumented immigrants are afraid to go to the hospital, the disease outbreak in a city will get much worse because it would be identified much later.
"But if logic were driving the Trump train, he wouldn't have declared workers in meat-packing plants essential workers just a few short months after ICE raids to get many of those same workers deported. But if your immigration policies are being engineered by a White House adviser who backs up his arguments with white supremacist websites, even pandemics provide an opportunity to push through a partisan agenda.
"And that's your reality check."
